Gorbachev Endorses Reforms Radical Plan To Shift Economy Is Adopted

September 12, 1990|The Washington Post

MOSCOW -- President Mikhail Gorbachev told the Supreme Soviet in a dramatic session on Tuesday that he endorsed a radical plan of economic reform and decentralization, in a direct rebuke of his prime minister, Nikolai Ryzhkov.

Gorbachev said that some of Ryzhkov`s proposals, which rely heavily on traditional systems of centralized planning and state-owned property, could be incorporated into a ``unified program.``

But the author of the radical ``500 Days`` program, economist Stanislav Shatalin, said that the unified program was ``99 percent mine`` and included only ``five or six figures`` from Ryzhkov`s version.

If enacted by the Supreme Soviet and the legislatures of the constituent republics, the ``500 Days`` program would mark a historic break with the legacy of the collectivist, centralized Stalinist economics.

The plan calls for a massive sell-off of state properties, decentralization of economic power from Moscow to the republics, the rise of private property and the creation of a stock market and other institutions found in Western market economies.

In an emotional speech, Gorbachev defended Ryzhkov against personal attacks and demands that the prime minister step down. ``This smells very bad,`` Gorbachev said. ``This is not what the political process is about.``

But Gorbachev`s public endorsement of Shatalin was unmistakable and Ryzhkov said later that he would resign if the final plan was too distant from his own.

Ryzhkov said that he favors a gradual transfer to a market system and that, in his view, Shatalin`s proposal to transfer economic control to the republics ``endangers the unity of the country.``